Container and closure therefor



July 26, 1949. H. RUBIN CONTAINER AND CLOSURE THEREFOR Filed Jan. 11,1947 I yw mi m u E A IN VEN TOR.

{/EQBERT RUB/1v A TTORNEY.

Patented July 26, 1949 h g 2,477,143 I CONTAINER AND CLOSURE THEREFOR vHerbert Rubin, New Yor N. Y. Application January 11, 1947, Serial No.721,518

"7 Claims.

This invention relates to containers for dispensing liquid or finegranular materials and closures therefor and more particularly tosuchcontainers which are easily assembled and easily manipulable and canreadily be ornamented.

- While considerable efiort has been expended in .the cosmetics andtoiletries field-s to market such products in attractive-distinctivecontainers, .the stress on attractiveness has often minimized the.utility, On the other hand, containers, and particularly the closures ofthe same,

when made with the stress on utility, have lost their attractiveness.Thus, the container either does notmake an attractive display, or elseit does not work well when put to the use for which it is intended. Themarketing of thecommodity is. accordingly affected, not by its ownqualities,

but by .the container in which it is dispensed.

When the commodity'being dispensed is expensive, a'more costly containercanbe employed and theproblem is not so pressing. When, however, thecost of the container must be kept at a, minimum, due to the inexpensivenature of the commodity carried in it, the problem of .furnishing, afully effective and distinctive container is a real one. V

Heretofore, in the inexpensive types of containers, attractive forms ofpaper or cardboard were used for completing them and dressing them up.The use of these calls for formance of hand operations in applying thepaper or cardboard parts to the containers, suchas the glueing of stripsaround the neck ofa bottle and other comparable operations. Consideringpresent labor costs,

readily appreciated that the. cost of such operations. is prohibitive.Thus, some other approach had to be found while keeping in mind thatdistinctiveness is desirable utility must be preserved. I believe that Ihave achieved those ends by means of the instant invention.

The container of my invention enables them corporation of attractivenessand distinctive ness of appearance with a functioning which-is eifectiveand intriguing. Nevertheless my. container is economical of productionand assembly, quite contraryto what its appearancewould indicate. Thedecorative scheme imparted to the embodiment selected for illustratingthe invention is that of an Early American oil lamp. s appearance is anattractive one but belies the fact that the device is in reality adispensing containerwith a novel and efiective'closure, in thefunctioning of which the elements play important parts. could just asreadily'be formed to simulate other typesof lamps and could take on manyother forms, entirely remote from that of a lamp. In the containershown, an economical base, or bottle part, is closed by means of captype the per--.

howeveryit can be While attractiveness and apparent 1 lamp, Thecontainer separated but inthe relative closure,'susceptible of beingturned out economi- In addition, such lowerend, or collar formation,

servesto maintain a, simulated oil lamp gallery in place. This apparentgallery also carries a handle to complete the simulationof an oil lamp,while, at the same time, serving as a gripping means.

The simulated gallery-thoug made of metaL can be turned out most maticmachinery. It secure the gallery in place at the time the lamp chimneyis applied to the closure cap. In fact, assembly labor is so reducedthat though the economically on autogallery .is made of materialsubstantially more expensive than paper,:the labor cost for assembly isso low that the overall cost for labor and material is well below .whatit would be if a paper gallery were used. Furthermore, no paper gallery,though adhered to itself, or to the simulated chimney, could perform thehandle supporting function of vention, v It is, accordingly an objectofmy invention to provide an'economical dispensing container ofattractive appearance. Another object is to the construction of my inofthe illustrative embodiment of the invention,

shown on the accompanying drawing, proceeds."

In that drawing I V Figure- 1 is a side elevation of the container of,my invention. 7

Figure 2 is a vertical sectiontaken online 2-2 of Figure 1. a j

Figure 3 isan exploded view. of the container of my invention, showingthe elements thereof 7 positions that they occupy when assembled,

Figured isa top planview of the base of my container showing a modifiedform of closure cap applied theretothe base of an Early Amerie theapplication of an apparenthowever, is formed of a re-- a lower end ofsubstantially as the outside of the closure This lower end, when engagedover:

is a most simple job to 7 provide a readily operable and extremelyconvenient closure for such a con-- through the perforations 23. Hereagain, of course, the simulated chimney gallery and handle are alsoemployed, and very effectively so. In fact, the provision of aneffective and attractive handle, on salt and pepper shakers, has alwaysbeen a problem when the same were made of glass or porcelain. Theconstruction of my invention provides a. fully effective and economicalsolution to that problem. Furthermore, the chimney, due to its stackeffect, is quite useful in preventing moisture laden air from workingdown into the container and moistem'ng the contents thereof. Thisfeature, in and of itself, is most desirable from the standpoint of saltalone.

In Figure 6 I have shown an enlarged section of a slightly modified formof simulated chimney. This chimney has a bellied out upper portion 24,and a lower engaging collar 25, the same as those of the simulatedchimney previously described. A diiference exists in the interior of thechimneys construction, however, for, instead of having a, smoothlyconvex curve where the portions 24 and 25 merge into each other, thismodified chimney has an inwardly extending shoulder 26. This shoulderresults from a thickening of the material at the top end of the collarwhich strengthens the whole construction. Particularly this thickeningreinforces, or backs up, the resilient action of the collar 25 inclamping upon the side wall ll of the closure member 9. In addition, theshoulder 26 comes into engagement with the head IU of the closure memberand assists in maintaining the proper longitudinal relationship of thesemembers.

It is, of course, to be understood that the particular exteriorconfiguration of the elements of my invention, is for the purpose ofenhancing the appearance thereof, and can be departed from widelywithout any real departure from the scope and spirit of the invention.For instance, the collar I! or 25 might terminate in any desired type ofgripping means, whether decorative or not. Also the handle place by thecollar need not be a simulated oil lamp gallery, but might be any othersuitably formed support. In addition, other modifications might welloccur to one skilled in the art, yet would fall within the scope of theinstant invention whose only limitations should be such as are imposedon the claims which follow by the disclosures of the prior art.

Having disclosed my invention, what I claim as new and seek to obtainLetters Patent for is:

1. A container having an opening therein, surrounded by an upwardlyextending neck, a cap type closure member engaged with said neck toclose said opening, means to operate said closure member, said meanscomprising a tubular member engaging said closure member exteriorly in afriction fit, a handle member for holding said container, and means tosecure said handle member in position with respect to said container,said means consisting of said tubular member and an extending portion ofsaid handle member.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 in which the extending portion ofsaid handle member is an annulus overlying the end of said tubularmember.

3. A device in accordance with claim 2 in which said neck is providedwith a laterally extending shoulder and said handle member annulus isheld against said shoulder by said tubular member.

4. A device in accordance with claim 3 in which said neck is formed withan exterior screw thread support maintained in formation above saidshoulder and said closure member is provided with screw threads matingwith the threads of said neck.

5. A dispensing container simulating an oil lamp, and comprising abottle type base member, having an opening therein surrounded by anexeriorly threaded neck, and laterally extending collar adjacent thebase of said neck, a cap type closure member overlying the end of saidneck and secured thereto in threaded engagement with the threads of saidneck, a member simulating an oil lamp chimney for operating said closuremember, said last named member having a resilient portion to overlie andtightly engage said cap type closure member, a member simulating thegallery of an oil lamp having an annular portion underlying the end ofsaid resilient portion and held in place by the same against saidcollar, said gallery member having fingers for overlying the exterior ofsaid resilient portion, and also having a handle extending laterallytherefrom.

6. A container having an opening therein surrounded by an upwardlyextending neck, a can type closure member engaged with said neck toclose said opening, means to operate said closure member, said meanscomprising a tubular member engaging said closure member exteriorly ina. friction fit, a handle member including a mounting portion and a handgrip portion, said mounting portion extending between and being securedin tight gripping relation between the inner end of said tubular memberand the adjacent portion of said container, said tight gripping relationbeing the sole securing of said mounting portion, said hand grip portionextending away from said mounting portion for gripping by the hand ofthe user.

7. A dispensing container simulating an oil lamp, and comprising a.bottle type base member, having an opening therein surrounded by anexteriorly threaded neck, and laterally extending collar adjacent thebase of said neck, a can type closure member overlying the end of saidneck and secured thereto in threaded engagement with the threads of saidneck, a member simulating an oil lamp chimney for operating said closuremember, said last named member having a resilient portion to overlie andtightly engage said cap type closure member, a member simulating thegallery of an oil lamp having an annular portion underlying the end ofsaid resilient portion and held in place by the same against saidcollar, said gallery member havingfingers for overlying the exterior ofsaid resilient portion.

HERBERT RUBIN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 27,259 Brown June 29, 1897 D.126,991 Rubin May 6, 1941 760,300 Bernardin May 17, 1904 815,033 Paullet al. Mar. 13, 1906 1,244,980 Hartman Oct. 30, 1917 1,637,667 VaughanAug. 2, 1927 1,971,307 Carvalho Aug. 21, 1934 1,978,635 Jedlicka Oct.30, 1934 2,076,457 Genone Apr. 6, 1937 2,394,135 Baar Feb. 5, 1946

